As WiFi makes its way into cellular phones, configuring these devices can be burdensome. Basic WiFi provisioning requires a Network ID (generally referred to as the Service Set Identifier or SSID) and encryption keys to be configured properly in the phone and the access point.
In some applications, it is possible for a phone to automatically detect an SSID from a beacon signal broadcast by the access point, thereby avoiding the need to manually configure it. However, for security purposes the access point may be provisioned to disable the broadcast of the SSID, in which case the end user of the phone needs to manually configure the phone with the SSID. For secure communications, most WiFi access points today utilize 128 bit encryption keys consisting of a hexadecimal string. Entering the hexadecimal string into the phone can be a challenge for most users, and is a process that is highly prone to errors, particularly when the device only has a 12 button keypad.
A need therefore arises for a method to ease the burden of configuring a multimode communication device for communicating with a corresponding wireless access point.